Lord Popat: My Lords, there are very rare moments in life when the passing of one person touches so many hearts and brings the entire world together. The passing of Her Majesty the Queen is one such moment. For me, it is a difficult task to add to the eloquent tributes that have gone before me and those  that will come after. I am humbled to have an opportunity to commemorate Her late Majesty’s excellent and unrivalled record of decades of dutiful, loyal and noble service.
I was privileged to serve in Her Majesty’s Royal Household as a Lord in Waiting from 2013 to 2016. It was and remains the greatest honour of my life. I could not believe that a refugee from Uganda such as  I would be asked to join the Royal Household. The invitation reflected the inclusivity and integrity of her great country. In that role of Lord in Waiting, I represented Her Majesty during the repatriation of President Sata’s body to Zambia, alongside the Countess of Wessex, and attended his funeral. What I did was only a fraction of the work the Queen did day in, day out, and I got a slight insight into the pressure of the job. I was also honoured to receive a number of Heads of State on her behalf. The welcome she gave and the humility she showed to those Heads of State are to be admired.
The 21,000 engagements that Her Majesty undertook are testament to her sheer dedication to public service. She must have met thousands and thousands of people, but I will never forget the moment I met her, when she demonstrated the unique ability to make you feel special. She took a keen interest in we Ugandan Asians who emigrated to this country in the 1970s, most of whom were already her subjects.
I will forever remain grateful that I got the opportunity to thank her for all that she did for Ugandan Asians. At a time just before the expulsion, Her Majesty articulated the highest level of diplomacy when responding to Idi Amin’s invitation to visit Uganda in 1972. Despite knowing his dictatorship, she deliberately signed her letter to Amin from “Your good friend, Elizabeth R.” She did so because she knew that British lives could be at risk if Amin thought he was being snubbed. Had it not been for her conscious efforts, thousands like me would not be here today.
Her Majesty’s affiliation with Uganda continued throughout her reign. She visited Uganda three times. The first occasion was a sad one, Her Majesty making a stopover on her way back from Kenya in 1952, alighting briefly from a Dakota aircraft at Entebbe Airport after news came of her father’s death. The second was two years later when, on a state visit, she opened the hydroelectric dam at the source of the Nile. The third time was in 2007 when she officiated at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Uganda, there meeting the newly democratically elected President of Uganda, President Museveni, who has always referred to the Queen as his “sister”.
She would have sent regards to President Museveni, who was scheduled to come to the UK yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the expulsion of Ugandan Asians and to attend the UK-Uganda convention, but this visit was cancelled out of  respect following Her Majesty’s demise. The message that I received from President Museveni of Uganda yesterday is that the people of Uganda are “mourning with you”.
As many in this House have mentioned, Her Majesty also had a great sense of humour, on which I would like to end. According to Lord Mountbatten, she jokingly threatened to hit Amin with her ceremonial sword if he tried to gate-crash the 1977 Silver Jubilee. He did not.
These stories must be taken with a pinch of salt, but they show—I think, in my own humility—the great and determined spirit of this monarch; she whom the earth shall soon receive as its honoured guest. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the newly proclaimed King Charles III for the enormous task ahead but, for now, Her Majesty’s memory is our keepsake, with which we will never part. God has her in his keeping as we have her in our hearts. Long live the King.